I’ll start this review off by saying that I’m a huge fan of the 1979 original TV movie of ‘Salem’s Lot’ directed by horror icon Tobe Hooper and starring the incredible David Soul and James Mason. That film traumatised an entire generation, delivering a searingly scary adaptation of Stephen King’s seminal classic to our screens. With a lot of brilliant scares and one of the most terrifying looks of a vampire ever put to screen in Barlow, ‘Salem’s Lot’ has a legacy that really didn’t need updating. That said, it’s not stopped a below-par 1987 sequel and a 2004 TV remake from already being made. Now it’s the turn of director Gary Dauberman to deliver his updated vision, and the end result is mostly a success, but with some caveats.
The story of the film follows a writer named Ben Mears (‘Top Gun: Maverick’ fan-favourite Lewis Pullman) who returns to his childhood hometown of Jerusalem’s Lot in New England, looking for inspiration for his latest book. As a child, he was traumatised by the mysterious Marsten House up on the hill, a creepy place that everyone in town knows to keep away from. Once back in Salem’s Lot, Ben learns that the property has been bought by a Mr. Straker (Pilou Asbæk), an antiques dealer who has newly moved into town. Before long, mysterious disappearances plague the community, so Ben investigates with some locals and starts to uncover a truly terrifying plot.
The first thing that strikes you with this remake is how off the pacing is. ‘Salem’s Lot’ was a 2-part TV movie, and as such had the time and patience to properly set up Stephen King’s brilliant story. This tries to condense everything into under 2 hours and the shortcomings of this are both immediately felt and a detriment to the efforts of the film. Rumour has it the original cut was 3 hours long and I think that version would play out a lot better. Having made the choice to release this straight to streaming in most territories (the UK and Ireland being rare exceptions to get a theatrical release), it baffles me as to why Warner Brothers just didn’t release the full cut as a 2-parter.
When you watch ‘Salem’s Lot’ you’ll see characters without proper backstory or resolution, plot points overlooked and rushed through, very choppy narrative editing and a general feeling that you’re being denied an opportunity to actually connect with any of these characters properly, which is a massive shame. The hard part was actually done, but this film suffers from having to cram in too much incident into too small a runtime, meaning the movie doesn’t flow well.
But in terms of characterisation, this new version of ‘Salem’s Lot’ does pretty well. Lewis Pullman is a brilliant lead and embodies the role of Ben. He shares a wonderful chemistry with Makenzie Leigh as love interest Susan Norton. Bill Camp steals his scenes as school teacher Matt Burke and young Jordan Preston Carter is excellent as the fearless Mark Petrie. Pilou Asbæk hams it up big time as Straker, but he does provide a few laughs, and one genuinely scary scene. Elsewhere, there’s decent support from John Benjamin Hickey as Father Callahan, Spencer Treat Clark as the ill-fated gravedigger Mike Ryerson and Alfre Woodard gets some belly laughs with her real-world reactions to the carnage that unfolds as Dr. Cody.
The infamous scares are what has endured the original ‘Salem’s Lot’ to audiences for the past 45+ years. Often imitated and rarely bettered, they form some of the most iconic frights Hollywood has ever conjured up. This new version of ‘Salem’s Lot’ for the most part understands this, and rightly duplicates a few of them. The ‘boy tapping at the window’ scene is still effective, as is the ‘gravedigger’ scene and the reveal of Barlow himself (played well by Alexander Ward). The eyes are still creepy as hell, and these scenes are shot classically, evoking the right levels of scares and spookiness lacking in the majority of modern horrors made these days.
Gary Dauberman has been a stalwart of the modern horror landscape for well over a decade now, having had a hand in scribing a lot of box office successes in the ‘Annabelle’, ‘IT’ and ‘The Nun’ franchises. He delivers a good-looking film – which makes the rushed and edited pacing of this film even more frustrating. There are some nice visual flourishes too, like the crosses glowing brightly when in close proximity to evil. ‘Salem’s Lot’ deserved a longer runtime to develop the decent characterisation and atmosphere it had laid down.
It was never going to top the original for me, but this new version of ‘Salem’s Lot’ is still a fun watch, especially with Halloween coming up. It harks back to a time when scares were genuinely chilling, it features a decent ensemble and it tries to create visuals that look timeless, rather than cheap and full of CGI. Perhaps the nostalgia of loving the original and Stephen King’s book is enough to take viewers of a certain age along for the ride despite its shortcomings. Hopefully younger audiences will still embrace this and enjoy it for what it is – a good, old-fashioned vampire story.
Cast: Lewis Pullman, Makenzie Leigh, Bill Camp, Jordan Preston Carter, Pilou Asbæk, John Benjamin Hickey, Spencer Treat Clark, Alfre Woodard, Alexander Ward Director: Gary Dauberman Writer: Gary Dauberman Certificate: 15 Duration: 114 mins Released by: Warner Bros Release date: 11th October 2024
